Does Anyone Get Chicken Pox Anymore?

[twoxcell]

 

Can someone explain to me why one would WANT their kids to get chicken pox?

I know it is not a serious illness, but having chicken pox makes you vulnerable for shingles later in life. Which is a very serious illness for the elderly.

Right? Or am I missing something?

 

To be clear - I am not attacking non-vaxxers, I'm just not clear on the reasons for deliberately exposing kids who haven't been vaccinated.

I'm guessing it is because chicken pox can be much worse when adults catch it. My brother almost died from CP when he was 18. He had had a very mild case when he was young and when my sister and I caught it he got it and was hospitalized.

[Erin]

I agree.

Those of you who have never had CP might want to seriously consider getting the vaccine!!

The older you get, the more serious it tends to be if you contract it. 

 

A good friend's husband got CP (he was 34) about three years ago and nearly died...  He was in ICU for more than a week.  

[unsinkable]

I'm actually wondering if it would be beneficial for my DS who has the antibodies to still get the vaccine?

[LostSurprise]

My oldest got it from (we assume) his grandmother when she had shingles. That was in 2000. He was 16 months and had had at least 1 chicken pox vaccination before he got it. 

 

My MIL was told that she couldn't spread it in the shingles form, but I was pregnant, we were moving, and I just didn't go out at the time. I'm pretty sure it was her. Fun. Nothing like morning sickness, an irritable toddler, and a moving van full of furniture. 

 

 

[myfunnybunch]

My boys caught it, all three of them, this year.

 

Their cousin got chicken pox, too, at the same time, without being exposed to my children.

 

None were vaccinated.

 

Cat

[Lisbeth]

The jury is out on whether shingles can be caused by the vaccine, the studies go both ways. There is a shingles vaccine, too.

[mom2scouts]

Yes, people still get chickenpox. A non-vaxing homeschool family I know all got chickenpox last winter and they were ill for quite a while. The mom did not want her kids to get the vaccination because "it causes shingles", although aren't they at risk for shingles now anyways?

 

My siblings and I were exposed to many friends with chicken pox when we were growing up. We never got them and thought we had a natural immunity, until my older sister and I both got them in our late 20's. We both became seriously ill. I had a fever of 105 and was both itchy and in severe pain. My body was covered in masses of chicken pox bumps. After much discussion with my doctor, my children got the vaccination. Some of my kids got chickenpox anyway, but they had *extremely* mild cases.

[Tress]

My kids haven't had chicken pox yet, which is a bit weird, because in the Netherlands nobody gets the chicken pox vaccine.

Apparently all the kids get chicken pox when they are small, at daycare or at kindergarten.....and now I can't find anybody in my neighbourhood with chicken pox to get my kids exposed. My husband had chicken pox at 16yo and was really ill, so I would like to prevent that.

[Matryoshka]

The jury is out on whether shingles can be caused by the vaccine, the studies go both ways. There is a shingles vaccine, too.

 

Shingles is just left over cp virus that reactivates later when your immune response is depressed (either generally or to cp).  Since the vaccine is live, you have live virus in your system, even with the vax.  What they wonder about is whether being vaxed makes you more or less susceptible to shingles later. 

 

[texasmama]

My brother got cp at the age of 16 and gave it to me when I was 18.  I was very ill and had a potentially life-threatening blood platelet disorder caused by cp.  I spent a week in the hospital and underwent a bone marrow extraction and other testing, all during my senior year of high school.  It took several months to recover, and it was quite unpleasant.  I am now a permanent non donor for blood due to this.  My brother had no complications.

[Library Momma]

I never had the cp growing up.  When I was 24 (yikes about 20 years ago) I worked for a company with a young man who had a very young brother (5 or 6). His family did not vax and the little brother contracted cp who in turn gave it to the brother I worked with.  Four people in our office became ill.  Two had mild cases because they had had chicken pox before.   I was extremely ill with a very high fever and needed to be hospitalized (although only for one night).  One of the other women that contracted it also became extremely ill and needed to be hospitalized..  She was pregnant and unfortunately lost the baby as a result. It was really awful.

[4everHis]

So if he caught it at camp, that assumes that someone else at camp had it also. Do you happen to know the source that the child caught it from? Was it someone recently vaccinated, someone else with wild chicken pox, or someone with shingles?

 

This is the first recent anecdotal case I've heard of.

There's a 10 day incubation period so, depending on how long he'd been at the camp, he could have easily been exposed back home.

[beaners]

There's a 10 day incubation period so, depending on how long he'd been at the camp, he could have easily been exposed back home.

 

Yeah, I figured out what she meant based on the response.  I thought "caught" meant picked up, but I think she meant the child came down with it there.

[kiwik]

The immunisation is available here at a cost so not many people have it. Mine got it a at 2 and 4. The two year old was obvious cp but the older just looked like a rash which I wouldn't have thought was cp except for the timing and distribution.

[Laura in CA]

Yes, my kids got chicken pox at ages 10 and 12. We were staying in Korea at the time, but I'm sure they got it from my mother, who had active shingles and was staying with us. My sister-in-law (in her 40s!) and my cousin (20-something) also got chicken pox (they were much more uncomfortable than my kids were). My husband calls my mother "Typhoid Mary" now LOL ... my SIL was with us most of the time, but we only saw my cousin once or twice, at dinner ... My mother claims she was being very careful, but ...

 

[EKS]

I had chickenpox as an adult at age 24.  It was the sickest I've ever been ever by far.  Getting chickenpox as an adult is not pretty.

[duckens]

When older dd was 2yo, I did in-home daycare.  Among my kids was a friend's 2yo, and (from another family) a baby.

 

One day, the friend telephoned to say her 2yo son H would not be coming to daycare because he had Chicken Pox. 

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah, because we wanted him exposed.  We took him to a Chicken Pox party a few weeks ago." :banghead:

 

So then I got to telephone the mom of the infant (who was too young for the vax) that her baby had been exposed to Chicken Pox, and she might be needing to miss a two weeks of work to spend with a sick infant.  Oh, and she only gets two sick days a year from work, and her husband is gone as much as he is home at this time of year for the research projects he runs at the different lakes around the state...so she's be handling this sick infant alone.

 

Moral of the story: if you choose to not vax, that's fine, but please do not send your kid to hang out with other peoples' babies after he has been knowingly and purposefully exposed to the virus.  It gives ALL non-vaxers a bad name, and they don't deserve that.

:rant:

 

 

Yes, I know a 7 year old boy who caught it this summer at camp. He was not vaccinated.  They had to notify the county health department and I'm sure the camp sent letters out to all the parents.

 

So if he caught it at camp, that assumes that someone else at camp had it also. Do you happen to know the source that the child caught it from? Was it someone recently vaccinated, someone else with wild chicken pox, or someone with shingles?

 Incubation time for Chicken Pox is 2 weeks.  He was likely infected a couple of weeks prior to camp.

 

One is contagious for two days before the first spots appear, so, yeah, letters to all the parents.

[happyWImom]

Question.  Mine both had the 1st vax for it (my ped. at the time scared me into it-which I regret) so if we do get lucky enough to find someone who has it & we expose them, what are their chances of contracting it?

 

Dd is 11, and ds 9, so I hate to wait too much longer in not getting the 2nd vax.  I would much rather have them actually get the chicken pox now, but don't want them to get it once they hit puberty.

[bodiesmom]

Question. Mine both had the 1st vax for it (my ped. at the time scared me into it-which I regret) so if we do get lucky enough to find someone who has it & we expose them, what are their chances of contracting it?

 

Dd is 11, and ds 9, so I hate to wait too much longer in not getting the 2nd vax. I would much rather have them actually get the chicken pox now, but don't want them to get it once they hit puberty.

I'm interested in hearing responses for this question as well since I am in the same boat. At what point(age) do we throw in the towel and go for the vax?

:-)

[Caclcoca]

My four children have all had the vax. DS12 got a very mild case of chicken pox a couple of months before his fifth birthday. DS7 also got a very mild case when he was four. Neither of my other children (DD9 and DS5) have gotten it. So I think their chances of contracting it depends on the child. Now that it s time for boosters, I really wish she had gotten it one of those times.

[Melissa in Australia]

Can someone explain to me why one would WANT their kids to get chicken pox?

I know it is not a serious illness, but having chicken pox makes you vulnerable for shingles later in life. Which is a very serious illness for the elderly.

Right? Or am I missing something?

 

To be clear - I am not attacking non-vaxxers, I'm just not clear on the reasons for deliberately exposing kids who haven't been vaccinated.

It can be a very serious illness. My nephew has had both chicken pox and shingles  and he is only 5. I know several people who have had shingles as an  adult and it has lasted for months and months. they were very ill.

 

extreme case scenario is that it can result in facial deformities and even death in young children.

[Reflections]

My dd was vax'd AND contracted wild chicken pox at about 9.  

[Reflections]

DB

[chaya]

my older three caught wild CP 7 years ago. I exposed them to a friends child who caught it overseas.

my younger ones still havent caught it, even though I did expose them to a contagious child 6 months ago.

[KungFuPanda]

I had a mild case as a preschooler and a horrific case in the 6th grade. I STILL remember how awful it was. I also had the worst case of the mumps. I'm SO glad my kids can get shots/boosters. My mother still shudders that there were a few days when they didn't know I'd make it through the mumps. Of course, she was greatful that her children had polio shots because she saw a lot of tragedy from that as a child.

[Crimson Wife]

There used to be a Yahoo group to facilitate pox parties in my area but some busybody who was militantly pro-vax got it shut down before my kids caught cp. Occasionally I will hear through the HS grapevine about a pox party but it is much more difficult without the Yahoo group.

 

I would have my kids get the vax if they came out with one that is not abortion-tainted. Oldest DD had to because she was in a private daycare that required it.

[flyingiguana]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varicella_vaccine

CDC numbers on chicken pox cases are under "Dangers of chickenpox"

 

So the number of cases has dropped dramatically.

[plath]

They are so rare around here, the doctor's offices can't even diagnose it anymore :/  My oldest dd has been diagnosed twice but has yet to have actually had it...

[Tammi K]

My son had it 3 years ago but he was exposed to someone with an outbreak of shingles.

[SweetMissMagnolia]

been wondering the same thing-my 10yr old hasn't had them and we don't think the hubby has had them either (YIKES).....

[m0mmaBuck]

My 7 yo had them at this time last summer.  She did not get them from the vax.  She picked them up at summer camp.  She was vaxed, but the doc said that about 20% of vax'd kids get them anyway. 

 

My son, on the other hand, did not get them when my daughter did.  He is also vax'd.  The doc gave him a booster vax when he went in for his camp physical last week, stating that people need to get a booster every 8-10 years to maintain immunity.  I argued that being exposed to his sister last year should be enough of a booster, but ultimately DH signed off on the vax.

[Luanne]

I tried a couple of times to have my daughter exposed to another child with it, but she still never got it so I had her vacc. at age 8 when she still hadn't had it.

[fiberdrunk]

My husband had a shingles outbreak last year, so both my kids caught full-blown chicken pox within a day or two of each other (neither had been vaccinated). 

 

Funny thing is, we deliberately exposed them to chicken pox two years ago.  The girl had been vaccinated for chickenpox, but she got a mild outbreak when her father got shingles.  My kids got a mild case of chicken pox after exposure.  So you can say they got them twice, though the first time was mild.

[Gailmegan]

The jury is out on whether shingles can be caused by the vaccine, the studies go both ways. There is a shingles vaccine, too.

 

This is untrue.  I had the vax when I was 12.  It was in the final stage of the trial, they were only trying to determine the most effective dosage. I did not have immunity prior to the vax - we are certain because they tested me.  I got titres periodically after the vax to see the rate at which my immunity increased.  I was fully immune within 6 weeks.  I got shingles when I was 24.  My doctor called Merck (the company who developed the vaccine) because he was stunned I could have developed shingles after the vax.  The person he spoke to was very nonchalant and told him they get reports of cases of shingles after the vax all the time.  

[swellmomma]

My oldest 3 have all had it naturally. the oldest 2 got it at 2 and 3 when they were in daycare.  Then when dd14 was 5 she got shingles so I let 3rd crawl all over her and he got chicken pox.  I have tried exposing the youngest twice now but no dice.  She is turning 6 and I am finding it hard to find anyone with pox.  I even had the health nurse that does the immunizations tell me who was breaking out (not names, but she was able to say a 2nd grade class in such and such a close town was having an outbreak) but I didn't know anyone in that group to not seem like the weirdo showing up in a school in a town an hour away and saying "hey can you have the 2nd graders cough on my kid or something to infect her with pox"  I am hoping she will get it before she hit double digits.  Both times I tried to get her exposed the infected kid had been immunized but got it anyway.

I was born with pox and got shingles at age 9.  Not sure why dd and I both had shingles as young kids, especially since we both had wild caught pox. 

[Mrs Mungo]

We vaxed our kids for CP as adolescents because none of them caught CP as younger kids.

[Mrs Mungo]

This is untrue. I had the vax when I was 12. It was in the final stage of the trial, they were only trying to determine the most effective dosage. I did not have immunity prior to the vax - we are certain because they tested me. I got titres periodically after the vax to see the rate at which my immunity increased. I was fully immune within 6 weeks. I got shingles when I was 24. My doctor called Merck (the company who developed the vaccine) because he was stunned I could have developed shingles after the vax. The person he spoke to was very nonchalant and told him they get reports of cases of shingles after the vax all the time.

Did you ever have a booster? My understanding is that CP is a vaccine that requires boosters every several years.

[Elfknitter.#]

We vaxed our kids for CP as adolescents because none of them caught CP as younger kids.

This is about where we're almost at. I went to pod stage the first day after the end of my Kindergarten year. Those first two weeks of summer I spent in an oatmeal bath. Otherwise, I was calamine lotions up the wazoo.

 

My oldest turns ten this year and I'm thinking in the next couple of years we may have to seriously consider the vax. I would prefer she and her siblings caught it soon, but that seems unlikely. So vaccination we may have to go.

[Dana]

My sister is one of those people who caught chicken pox twice as a child. She had mild cases both times.

 

OTOH, I had it when I was 5. Looking at some old photos when I was in my 20s, I saw that one scar I have on my face is from the chicken pox then. I'd never put it together until seeing that picture. Right by my eye too....

[Erin]

They are so rare around here, the doctor's offices can't even diagnose it anymore :/  

 

My friend's husband who nearly died--that's part of what they ran in to.  

The first few days, no one was entirely sure what it was!  And this was a hospital in a major US city.

[jhschool]

A friend's daughter had it a couple years ago.

[dirty ethel rackham]

My plan was for my kids to get the disease when they were younger and not do the vaccination.  However, our back up plan was to vaccinate at puberty if they didn't get it.  We had to go with the back up plan with our oldest.  He never caught it despite several exposures (not intentional, but "hey, you were over yesterday and my son came down with CP this morning" exposures.)  We never did the intentional exposures because we always learned about natural cases at inconvenient times or heard about them too late.  We had him vaxed at age 13 because I didn't want him to contract it at that point because I had seen first hand how bad it could be for teens and adults.  My other two caught the natural virus.   I don't remember where they got it.  My oldest had only one dose and was due for another one, but we hadn't gotten around to it.  He didn't get CP from his brother, with whom he shares a room, so the doc felt he had already received his booster and didn't need the 2nd dose. 

 

My reasoning for not wanting the vaccination was that I felt that it was for convenience for working parents as well as a $$ maker for the vaccine maker.  I know not everyone shares that opinion.  But growing up and while my oldest was little, chicken pox was viewed as a benign illness in children.  It was not viewed as a dreaded disease.  It seemed that, as soon as the vaccine was available, everyone started talking about how terribly dangerous CP was and how it was a terrible threat to public health.  The only change was the availability of a vaccine.  After a niece got the vaccine, she ended up with CP twice (mild cases, but my sister still had to take off the same amount of time from work.)  Also, it came out afterwards that there was an alarming up tick in the number of shingles cases - due to lack of exposure to the natural virus which helps our immune system to keep the virus in check.  Oh, and my niece who was vaccinated and had CP a couple of times also came down with shingles as a teen. 

[SwallowTail]

One thing to remember is that there are things you can and should do to boost the immune system if a child or adult gets chickenpox or shingles.  Exceptional nutrition, plenty of bedrest plus Vitamin C, Vitamin A , Vitamin D and various herbal tinctures can help reduce severity and duration.

[KungFuPanda]

Sooooo . . . are we saying that everyone should get a booster? With the cases of wild pox so diminished, fewer people are getting Wild Boosters. It stands to reason that we need a booster from somewhere. Or am I misunderstanding completely? Or are we getting Wild Boosters by being exposed to kids who have had shots?

[redsquirrel]

I had cp at 18 or 19 and it wasn't a big deal. I wasn't especially sick or anything. I ran a fever for a couple days, had the spots and then it was over.

 

It did mess up my spring break though. That was a bummer.